Manchester Photography.

2011-03-28T23:35:00.003+01:00

Since the blog went 'bang' I've been occasionally hanging down facebook way.

2011-02-21T22:23:00.008Z

Well after almost four years, 1,517 post's and 182,352 unique visitors I've decided it's time to hang up the blog. We've had some laughs, pissed plenty of people off and hopefully shone some light on some tip-top photographers and artist's. The time is right for me to call it a day. Nice one It's been a fucking laugh..............

Keep in touch at http://www.markpagephotography.com/

Back Soon.

2011-02-19T20:14:00.003Z

Image copyright Mark Page

Just trying to find a little peace after the house move, clearing my head and resting my feckin back......

2011-02-08T23:25:00.004Z

I'm hanging up the blog for a couple of weeks as I'm moving house. I will be off

line so answering emails/comments will also probably not happen for a while. I do have a Blackberry but the things tiny buttons and my fat thumbs don't get on so well. Not sure how long it will take to get back up and running, hopefully by the end of the month but as it's in the hands of BT, fuck knows. So until then.....

Great British Minds.

2011-02-06T22:58:00.002Z

Can there be two greater intellects? Two minds with a greater sense of rhetoric and a more rigorous logic? This is how it must have been in ancient Greece.

Old Goat.

2011-02-06T22:49:00.003Z

Chinese New year today which is always a big event in Manchester. Found out that I was born in the year of the goat which apparently makes me fun to know but prone to pessimism. imagine me prone to pessimism? Anyway suitable occupations for me include gardening which I like a bit and beachcombing. Not many beaches in Manchester but then I thought whats photography if it's not a form of beachcombing?

Obsolete Studios

2011-02-06T22:39:00.002Z

Obsolete Studios is a new blog by photographer Rob Ball. I featured Rob way back in 2008 and it's great to see his new work along with the new blog. It's also great that we are still in touch albeit online. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I have made some great contacts and got to see some really interesting work over the years through blogging.

Amy Stevens.

2011-02-06T22:17:00.003Z

As it's nearly my Birthday and I will be off line due to the house move on the day, I thought I would celebrate early with the work of

Amy Stevens....

2011-02-03T23:51:00.005Z

Image copyright Susan Burnstine

I've noticed in the last couple of years a lot of photographers 'tipping their hats' to pictorialism. Is it the recession? Is it a bit like the growth in knitting, allotments and wearing tweed while cycling? Are we harking back to a more Innocent time? Are we after a big photographic kiss off our Nana's?

The images over on the latest edition of FRACTION may have been shot with plastic camera's and pinholes, which is nothing new but unlike earlier HOLGA photography that shot colour and looked for happy accidents however samey it ended up looking, this new wave seem to be reaching back as far as Fox Talbots 'Window'. Although I enjoy looking at this type of thing in much the same way as I enjoy looking at a nice water colour, I'm a bit surprised at FRACTION for dedicating almost ( I really enjoyed 'Trailers Collected' by Nan Brown) a whole issue to it. The chaps at FRACTION normally give you with something a bit meatier to get your teeth into.

2011-02-02T23:23:00.002Z

If anyone has anything (except Airport parking) that they want me to plug over the next couple of weeks get it in soonish cos I'm on the move again next week and will no doubt have to make several thousand telephone calls and wait weeks to get my broadband back on......

2011-02-02T23:19:00.001Z

UNITED LEGEND!

James Robinson.

2011-02-02T22:29:00.004Z

I've mentioned James before here on the blog in his capacity as Photographer at the John Rylands Library (you can check out much of the collection online HERE.) James has also recently put online some of his personal projects. The above image is from one of my favourites, VOTE. I think James has really captured the apathy that so many Brits feel towards politics. Even when people are trying to campaign there's a sense of 'can't really be arsed' about it.

2011-02-01T23:29:00.004Z

I was thinking of making some kind of work out of rejection letters from all the submissions, competition entries, exhibition proposals etc. But then I remembered that the arrogant bastards never write back to you anyway.

11 tips for 2011 brought to you by

2011-01-31T21:40:00.001Z

HERE.

CATHEDRAL OF SHIT.

2011-01-31T21:23:00.002Z

If you like your Art blogs full of bile and cynicism, and I'm guessing you do try THIS.

Grayson Perry @ MAG

2011-01-31T16:41:00.006Z

Photo; fuck knows I tried to find the author but......

I love Grayson Perry. Not in the biblical sense, middle aged men dressed as small girls ain't my thing. No what I mean is I love his work. I like that whole British post war gloomy eccentric yet ordinary thing. A bit like if Philip Larkin and Lily Savage bred.
So as I like his work so much it's a good job then that a Grayson Perry exhibition opens at Manchester Art Gallery tomorrow. A small but perfectly formed exhibition, it showcases two recent acquisitions bought by the gallery along with two other pieces. There are also other items selected by a group of 15 to 18 year olds collectively known as The Creative Consultants, which they feel have connections to the Grayson Perry aesthetic. Amongst these bits n bobs is a really nice Paul Nash print and a big pair of pants. Eclectic.

2011-01-30T23:08:00.002Z

As the name suggests CHINA SQUARE Gallery represents Chinese artists. Based in NY it's no good to pop into but luckily they have a decent website that let's you see stacks of work by Artist's from the big country that manufactures plastic shit by the ton and is obsessed with the colour red. Oh yes there is a separate photographers section full of refreshing stuff. Happy early Chinese New Year. HERE.

Fire.

2011-01-27T23:47:00.004Z

This is one of them proper Arty events. An Artist's Bonfire. Twenty odd Artist's burning work in a symbolic thingy. You could have submitted work to burn but it's a bit late now. You can though still go and watch other people burn their stuff should you wish. There will be food (BBQ I presume) and a party late into the night with people dancing naked around the fire and barking at the moon. I made that last bit up. Tomorrow night HERE.

Bargin!

2011-01-27T23:31:00.002Z

I said you buy one and you get one free! I don't normally do product plugs here but CALUMET Manchester do have a good offer on paper at the moment. It's not BOGOF actually, but buy two and get one free. Still saves you £30. OK I'll shut up now....

You're not kidding are you?

2011-01-25T23:29:00.005Z

I got an email today from a bloke asking me if I could link back to his and I quote, "My Manchester Airport parking page" Now I thought interesting photo project, a bit of a Martin Parr 'Parking Spaces' rip-off but heyho I've never seen it narrowed down to something as specific as 'Airport parking' before. So OK that could be interesting what with the fact that you leave your car there longer. Perhaps he is photographing the residues that gather on the car windscreens or perhaps he's collecting notices or flyers (No pun intended) that are being left on the cars OK nice one I'll check out the link. No. It's just a website about Airport parking spaces. So anyway Matt HERE you go you cheeky bastard.

David Williams.

2011-01-24T22:44:00.004Z

Recently I have been studying the work of David Williams and wondering how I can rip it off, sorry take inspiration from his series 'one taste: (n)ever-changing
(88 Places)' to inform a little project I've been thinking of doing myself. These are some beautiful pictures. Powerful at expressing a kind of peace. I love them and they make me feel happy. So last two posts, Zen and old men's balls. I love photography........

2011-01-21T23:11:00.002Z

Later.

Dalia Khamissy

2011-01-19T22:24:00.005Z

I received this, today from Benjamin over at DUCKRABBIT. And HERE to see more of Dalia Khamissy's work.

About 18 months ago I had an idea to bring the important stories some photographers tell to a very large audience. My dream was to combine a radio documentary presented by a photographer, combined with a photofilm of their work. The biggest audience I could think of was the BBC World Service, so I took it to them and they decided to pilot the idea.

Since then I've been working with the Lebanese born photographer Dalia Khamissy (thanks to Joerg, at Conscientious) and American Joseph Rodriguez.

Today the first documentary and photofilm were published (it will be played worldwide seven times on the BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4). Its about the estimated 17000 people kidnapped during the Lebanese civil war and never seen again. Its a genuinely brilliant piece of presentation by Dalia Khamissy (the documentary) ,with some great photos and video for the film (which is really meant as a teaser for the documentary).

Few know about the Missing in Lebanon, which is why I think it's an important story to be heard. Not because the broadcast will change anything dramatically but because memory is resistance against the same atrocities being repeated.

Please take 5 minutes to watch the film and if it moves you, download the podcast of the documentary. For those with blogs the film is embeddable. And a tweet would be much appreciated or a link on Facebook. Dalia deserves enormous respect for this work. It was a brave story for her to take on.

Hopefully the BBC will commission more programs of this nature, which would be great for photographers working on important stories who would like to reach a genuinely large audience.

THANKS

Benjamin

DIY

2011-01-19T14:50:00.003Z

Blurb. I've self published two books myself the Blurb way. I don't know what it is but it's just not, I don't know, not satisfying enough. A bit like buying a microwave kebab from Tesco's instead of a kebab from Kebabish (I know, my body is a temple) So for a while I've been thinking about different ways of putting POMONA together in book form, and binding it myself is probably the way I'll go. Besides it fits more with the inspiration for my POMONA the HEREFORDSHIRE PONONA.

So I was very interested to see that Colin Pantall had also gone down the DIY bookbinding route. Sofa portraits is the title of the book. Colin says of the work.

"Sofa Portraits is a series of images showing my daughter, Isabel, as she watches television.
These portraits portray the flawed physicality of childhood and its mental and physical freedoms - but also the constraints that are applied by the adult world - the furnishings Isabel is so often pushing against, the dress determined by the educational system she is now part of, or even the attitudes to her physical self-expression as she watches television."

Should any of you be interested in having a crack yourselves at book making HERE'S a PDF on the Japanese Stab Stitch which is the method Colin chose to use. And here locally we have a complete firm dedicated to Bookbinding and oh yes you can learn how to do it HERE.

Naomi Kendrick.

2011-01-16T23:05:00.008Z

I'm crap at drawing. Oh I can draw say a flower, and get a passable resemblance and I can draw a portrait and make people laugh and the sitter all pissed off, "looks fuck all like me" they would whine. But when I was at Art School and it came to 'mark making' and really trying to express something in a say, Cy Twombly kind of way I was crap. Too anal. I think that's why photography suites me because it is a fairly anal activity all that 'collecting' and organising into 'a series'.

Anyway back to Naomi Kendrick and her music drawing. Naomi is a Manchester based artist who draws to music and is asking people to join her for a workshop at THE BAND ON THE WALL on the 27th January. So to get an idea what this FREE event is all about watch the above film (nice little film by Mark Morreau with a great little tune by Ronnie Ronnie) below for full details.

Drawn to the Beat

By Naomi Kendrick

27.1.11 7pm Band on the Wall Manchester
To reserve your free place follow this link http://bandonthewall.org/events/2919/

Drawn to the Beat is a participatory music drawing event using Silent Disco technology. This event is a chance for anyone to try out music drawing by drawing alongside artist Naomi Kendrick in the Band on The Wall club space, which will become both silent disco and enormous drawing surface for the night.

The fascinating method of drawing music Naomi Kendrick has developed has the act of listening and physical response is at its core. Through drawing in this way she attempts to bring an immediate connection between mind and body that results in a drawing. This process often involves working with her eyes closed sitting on the drawing surface, and while drawing around herself using both hands, building up an energetic drawing of layered marks. Listening intently, she moves both in response to the layers and speed of the sound heard and the emotional response it evokes in her. Naomi’s method of drawing music has recently been documented in ‘Drawing Music’ a film by Mark Morreau, commissioned by DaDa Fest International, and screened on BBC Big Screens Nationally and BBC2’s The Culture Show Nov 2010. http://vimeo.com/17345147

This event is to encourage other people to draw and respond to the music in their own unique way. The silent disco technology will silently deliver an eclectic mix of music, selected in collaboration with musicians, to headphones worn by the participants and myself as we draw. Two different channels of music can be chosen from via the headphones meaning you could be drawing classical music whilst your neighbour draws reggae! Every now and again the music will be 'played out' to be heard by everyone, connecting peoples movements and drawings with the music. This will create a playful space where the idea of a solitary, internal perception and a shared act of creativity can be explored.

About Naomi Kendrick

I am an artist based in Manchester and currently Artist in Residence at Salford University. I am interested in creating work that, by engaging people with the senses, offers a ‘full’ experience and personal connection to my artwork. My artwork includes multi sensory installations, sculpture, drawing and participatory events, where people are invited to explore my work through interaction and encouraged to respond, through creating something themselves.

My practice is currently dominated by drawing music. This began in 1999 when, as part of research into creating and experiencing art without focusing on the visual, I spent a week wearing special glasses that gave me the effect of having severe cataracts. Drawing music began as an outlet while briefly starved of vision, and has grown to become an investigation into the act of listening and response, and I have recently collaborated with musicians and dancers to expand on these ideas.

The drawings themselves have an aesthetic I can never exactly predict, as so many factors depend on their outcome. There is always a fine line I have to tread, between really listening, and therefore to a certain extent letting go of visual awareness, and using the eye to edit and control the drawings. My position in relation to the drawing surface, the materials, and how long I choose to draw for all influence the outcome. However the key to each drawing is the music itself. Music that I find ‘works’ to draw varies enormously from Gorillaz to Shubert and Miles Davis to Brian Eno. I find music with more complex layers of sound the most evocative. Rather than attempting to map the sound (directly translating the audio into visual), I want my drawings to be a record of the experience of listening. They are the visual evidence of how that particular piece of music has moved me, physically but most of all emotionally.

There is a performative aspect to the drawing, when I draw I am lost in the moment, only slightly aware my body is engaged with my mind in the act of drawing, however to the observer my body has become more literally entwined with the drawing as it develops. One person likened it to watching a crazed spider building her web, which I particularly like, as once I am drawing a piece of music I am on an intuitive mission, one I cannot stop.

In addition to the drawings I produce alone, I have drawn music with friends, colleagues and during workshops on many occasions and am often moved by the response it evokes in people. Responding to music can be so many things, personal, yet something we often do in groups, fun, thought provoking but most of all a release. Ultimately the incomparable experience of drawing music, of listening in this unique way, is one I want to share, which is why I have created the event ‘Drawn to the Beat’

My artwork is also informed by my workshops. I have been running ‘Elephant Workshops’ multi sensory & inclusive workshops popular with visually impaired and blind people, at galleries nationally for 10 years. Throughout my practice I aim to create opportunities, for a broad audience, to experience and respond to high quality art, allowing people’s interests and passions to dictate their encounters, rather than their social ‘category’.

New Cliches of Photography #25

2011-01-14T00:06:00.002Z

Anything shot with that APPLE 'HIPSTAMATIC' app bollocks.....

G & G @ WC

2011-01-13T23:05:00.004Z

Photography Benjamin Westoby

Love this pair of old weirdo's. Good old fashioned British (well .5 Italian but we'll have him) eccentrics. Two tweed clad 'nut nuts' who have successfully navigated the photography/art art/photography no mans land. HERE for an interview to coincide with their new London show.

Flower Power.

2011-01-12T22:52:00.009Z

Flower pressings from POMONA. I'm a big fairy......

Voices Exhibition @ The Peoples History Museum.

2011-01-12T22:12:00.003Z

Recent graduates from the MA Photography at Bolton uni have a show called 'VOICES' at the very excellent PEOPLES HISTORY MUSEUM. Starts 15th January and runs till 27th February 2011. Launch night is Thursday 20th of Jan?? Anyway launch night is on the 20th and you can book yourself in for some free wine HERE. Well recommended this one. Some good photographers featured including Percy Dean and Neal Andrews both of whom have been shown on MANCHESTER PHOTOGRAPHY before.

2011-01-10T23:12:00.003Z

As Rik from The Young Ones used to say, "never trust a hippy"

Tim Edgar.

2011-01-10T22:52:00.003Z

So there I was reading a back issue of SOURCE from a couple of years ago, reading about the work of Tim Edgar and then fuck me I'm over on the smashing Harvey Benge blog and he's just posted about Tim. Spooky eh? I'm agreeing with Harvey, I do like this work and would love to see more of the series 'Rookery' So Tim if you're reading this my address is ..................

Nicholas Grider

2011-01-10T22:06:00.003Z

Some proper interesting work over on Nicholas Grider's website. Would have liked a little bit of info about it though.

Matthew Sleeth.

2011-01-09T23:40:00.003Z

This has got to be one of the best websites I've seen! Bleedin well wish I'd thought of it. His work is right up my street as well. Matthew Sleeth.

2011-01-09T22:53:00.000Z

Invitation from the Shpilman Institute For Photography

2011-01-06T22:46:00.006Z

I know MANCHESTER PHOTOGRAPHY readers are a clever bunch. I know that even now as I speak, some of you have recently finished your Master's and may be looking for your next challenge? Is there some burning issue to do with photography that you feel needs the time (and money) for some serious academic study? Read the below email go and have a look and I'll stick a link at the side for you if you decide to have a pop........ Good luck my fine MANC brains..............

Dear Mark ,

My name is Anat and I'm a researcher at The SIP - The Shpilman Institute for Photography.

The SIP is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote an open discussion about the meanings and functions of photography and related media. The SIP aspires to facilitate, promote and initiate research, open debate and creative work in the fields of photography.

I invite you to browse through our blog institute's blog, (which is really interesting: Mark) which we consider as a conceptual hub, dealing with visibility through community based cultural exchange. We welcome visual and conceptual collaborations as part of our ongoing activity.

We have been disseminating our first annual calls for research during the first weeks of December. As we are well familiar with the contents of your blog, we thought these calls for research may be of interest both for you and for your readers.

We will be more than happy to send you our calls, so that you will be able to distribute them to "Manchester Photography" members and readers.

All the best,

Anat Movshovitz
Research assistant

http://www.thesip.org/
http://twitter.com/#!/thesip
http://www.facebook.com/thesip

So who was he again?

2011-01-05T23:39:00.007Z

I had this overwhelming desire today to start signing and dating my entire archive of prints. Not because I think this will add any value to them, it's just that I was thinking that if I got hit by a bus they wouldn't be complete orphans and if someone was to do a Google they would be able to put two and two together and at least I would have left some kind of a legacy. This is what having too much time to think and reaching your mid-forties does....

Now if I do get hit by a bus in the next couple of weeks you will be able to point to this post and say "fucking spooky".

Note to self; Start work on a MOMENTO MORI.

Carey Young at The Cornerhouse.

2011-01-04T23:07:00.002Z

Featuring photography, Carey Young comes to the CORNERHOUSE from the 5th of February.

PORTFOLIO: contemporary photography in Britain.

2011-01-04T22:30:00.003Z

Over the crimbo holidays I became aware of the demise of PORTFOLIO MAGAZINE. It has been on my magazine purchase list for years so I'm gutted to see it go. Not the cheapest at a tenner, but it only came out a couple of times a year and was packed with some good writing and production values as good as any. If I had one criticism, and hey it's me so of course I have, it was that they sometimes played it a bit safe with the photographers chosen. I rarely came across the work of a photographer I was not already aware of and not seen in plenty of other publications or online. I think it's safe to say 'emerged' rather than 'emerging' was order of the day. Still going to leave a big whole on the shelves of quality magazine shops.

New Year sad start.

2011-01-03T23:03:00.002Z

Pete Postlethwaite 1946-2011

Happy New Year, and all of that.

2011-01-03T22:06:00.004Z

Christmas done. Back to work, both photographically and keeping a roof over one's head type work. Well how have you been? Did you have a good one? Have we all made loads of resolutions? Make more work. Get more shows. Make better work, that type of of shit. I think one of mine is play more. Have more fun and experiment more.

And on that topic, above is a book I got for Christmas. Keith Arnatt is ridiculously overlooked on the world photography stage, perhaps because he is so hard to pin down he is in my opinion a hugely important photographer and a bridge between photography and conceptual art. Take a peak HERE.

2010-12-19T19:51:00.002Z

that's all folks,

at least for 2010. Have a great Christmas and I'll be back in January.

2010-12-17T01:46:00.000Z

2010-12-16T23:36:00.004Z

I knew one was coming and I'm glad it's come from Manchester's BlackLab. I thought it might be a CYBER CHE poster that came out but I'm liking this, and the whole broken dream irony of it all.

Stuart Griffiths.

2010-12-15T23:27:00.003Z

Picturehouse Cinemas Present Isolation from Institute For Eyes on Vimeo.

"Many years ago I was a coffin bearer for a fallen comrade. I remember feeling the weight as we lowered the coffin into the grave and then afterwards folding the Union Flag and presenting it to the mother & father. Through photography I want to convey a sense of personal feeling about sacrifice. These journeys take me to many corners of the UK. I am fascinated by the people that gather in the wind and rain, whom line the sixty mile route with salutes and Union Flags, from RAF Lyneham to John Radcliff Hospital in Oxford, on each day a fallen soldier returns home."

Stuart Griffiths

I've been following Stuart's work for a few years and the above quote introduces a more recent series photographs called 'Final Journey'. Stuart Griffiths is making important records on the effects of conflict on British servicemen and their families, and more and more people are beginning to take note as can be seen HERE, HERE and HERE.

2010-12-15T23:14:00.002Z

Image copyright Mark Page

A title page.

The Genius Of Photography.

2010-12-14T00:06:00.002Z

The whole of the series from a few years ago THE GENIUS OF PHOTOGRAPHY is now on YOUTUBE. Cheers for the 'tipoff' DUCKRABBIT.

Gordon Stettinius

2010-12-13T23:44:00.003Z

Image copyright Gordon Stettinius

Them crazy Americans. Gordon Stettinius.

2010-12-13T23:27:00.004Z

Who says Britain no longer manufactures and exports anything? Sorry is that in bad taste? No you're right, taking the piss out of Britain's lack of a manufacturing base is no laughing matter....

2010-12-13T22:56:00.006Z

NOORDERLICHT PHOTOFESTVAL 2011 Call For Submissions

Fuck me a call for submissions that wont cost you any money ! HERE for details. Well done that festival.

Percy Dean.

2010-12-11T00:15:00.003Z

Image copyright Percy Dean

Manchester has the largest Jewish population in the UK outside of London and I live just down the road from them and have done for years, yet I know next to nothing about them. This no doubt says something about me as well as so called multicultural Britain. Manchester photographer PERCY DEAN has made more of an effort to get to know this community with his series 'Clouds of Glory' and in the process produced a fine set of images.

This Time Next Week......

2010-12-10T23:48:00.005Z

I shall be showing pictures HERE as I'm one fifteenth of MEATYARD ARTS. Click on flyer to enlarge and then print it off as it's your invite.

Bag(s) of Shite.

2010-12-08T23:13:00.019Z

Images copyright John Darwell.

Yep that's what they are, bags of shite. Bags of dog shit to be exact. Or to give the work it's full title 'DISCARDED DOG SHIT BAGS' by John Darwell. A typology of a very modern phenomenon and I'm guessing a pretty British one. Go to beauty spot to commune with nature, into the lovely park land and then when your dog shits place it in a plastic bag and hang it from a tree like some fucking hellish totem. Once you stop giggling at the idea and disgust of the series it 'throws up' (no pun intended) all kinds of modern life nonsense. Another spin knowing John is that the exhibition prints will be spot on so beautiful prints of horribleness. You'll want to look but then a bit of sick will be in your mouth at the same time as you have a wry smile on your face. It will be a messy time at The 2011 FORMAT FESTIVAL where you will be able to see the series next march.

Corrie.

2010-12-06T22:26:00.006Z

UK readers will no doubt know that this week (actually Thursday 9th) marks the 50th anniversary of the worlds longest running TV soap opera. I make no apologies for loving 'The Street', almost as much as anything or anyone it's been a huge influence on the photographs I make. Above are two original pictures I was given of a newly built GRANADA STUDIOS dating from 1958 two years before CORONATION STREET went live, look at them ashtrays and HP sauce bottles on the table! In case you missed it on tonight's TV below is the first ever episode. Produced only seven years before I was born It seems such a different Manchester (or Salford) and a different country but has much in common with an England I can remember as a kid. It represents a different type of romantic vision of England. Not the chocolate box country cottage home counties England, but the close knit communities of a Northern industrial working class town, like the ones that throughout the next few decades were systematically destroyed by successive governments and councils of both persuasions. The continuing success of the show is probably due to romance and nostalgia for times past, as well as being bloody good telly. Tony Warren knew that the daily lives of ordinary streets and people could be both fascinating and comforting and were already beginning to disappear. Large areas of Salford had already been subject to the wrecking ball with communities being dispersed all over Greater Manchester several years before the show was aired. The episode below and to a lesser degree the modern show is a lament to an England that no longer exsists and many people miss.

Ivo Rafailov

2010-12-05T23:24:00.003Z

Image copyright Ivo Rafailo

I know nothing about Ivo Rafailov other than he is Bulgarian. I found the series 'Come in' from which the above image is taken over on Visura I felt I was looking at something I'd not seen before, I'm intrigued. In this world of mass information it's nice to have a little bit of mystery. All I could find on him was his BLOG which is also mysteriously called The Watchmaker.

2010-12-05T23:16:00.004Z

My MANCHESTER PROJECT has recently got a nice little write up over on CURATED PLACE.

2010-11-29T23:46:00.002Z

IS the latest upload to my WEBSITE. Originally started back in 1999 it's my ongoing documentation of my Manchester. Not sure it will get picked up by Marketing Manchester..

New Cliches of Photography #24

2010-11-28T01:11:00.001Z

Pissed Russians......

Neal Andrews

2010-11-25T22:40:00.004Z

When I was about fifteen or so I was sent to see the school careers officer to discuss my future job plans. Career paths in 8o's Widnes consisted of working for ICI or working for GOLDEN WONDER. I told the career officer I wanted to be a Shepherd. I was bollocked for messing about. Thing is I did, I really wanted to be a shepherd. I knew very little about it, it was probably a consequence of watching 'ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL' on a Sunday night. But for a time in 1982 I wanted to tend sheep.

Anyway enough about my faded dreams of youth, I'll have to make do with documentary photographer Neal Andrews atmospheric little film THE HILL FARMER. Below for a preview of the book.

Cedric Delsaux.

2010-11-23T23:29:00.002Z

Image copyright Cedric Delsaux

How do you deal with the fact and fictions of the modern urban landscape ? Why not photograph Dubai and then fill the images with Starwars figures ? The 'off his head' yet brilliant world of CEDRIC DELSAUX.

BOOK NOW TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT !

2010-11-23T23:04:00.004Z

Click on flyers to enlarge so you can see all the goodness you get. contact via www.teenataylor.com www.johndarwell.com www.photoweekenders.com www.theprincesshotel.co.uk or call on contact Naomi Hall on 0161 238 4761

Si Barber

2010-11-22T21:13:00.005Z

Si Barber is a stablemate of mine over at MEATYARD ARTS. He is also a newspaper photographer which is where many of the images from his series THE BIG SOCIETY, snapshots of 21st century Britain come from. I think the fact that these images have have been born out of a careful edit of a collection rather than from setting out with the purpose of capturing modern Britain, gives the work a less contrived feel an unique view. The series can be seen HERE (click projects then preview then preview again) You can see what John Donaldson from MEATYARD says HERE.

Zen.

2010-11-22T00:37:00.002Z

Cheers STAN.

Best of the year.

2010-11-21T23:49:00.007Z

Image copyright ALEJANDRA BARTOLICHE

Reuters full focus 'Best of the Year' sounds like a dog show but some good images never the less. HERE.

"He painted Salford's smokey tops"

2010-11-21T23:21:00.006Z

and weird partially naked girls? Inspired by the ballet? Yeah that would be my excuse if someone found drawing's like this that I'd done.

Rarely seen LSL sketches as part of THIS exhibition at The Lowry Centre.

I can't see these images making it onto the tea-towels and tat in the gallery shop...

2010-11-18T23:22:00.002Z

I just found a new online photography mag! And because I'm immature I giggled about the title.... HERE.

Ville Lenkkeri.

2010-11-18T22:29:00.002Z

Image copyright Ville Lenkkeri

Tales from the frozen north Brrrrrrrrr.HERE.

New Cliches of Photography #23

2010-11-18T22:09:00.002Z

Something old something new, take an old picture and mix it together with a new one.

2010-11-17T23:21:00.001Z

Image copyright Mark Page

2010-11-17T23:07:00.005Z

image copyright Chen Qiulin

I got sent this from my mate ED.

Hi Mark,
How's things. I was wondering if I could get another favour? If possible
could you post about the new course the whitworth will be running? I'm just
starting to take bookings and I thought it would be of interest to some of
your followers (I think this should be readers!)... Here's the details anyway if you can.

Contemporary Landscape Photography
8-week course, Saturdays starting 15th January, 1pm 3pm, £100*

In response to our Land Between Us; power, place and dislocation exhibition,
submerse yourself in the world of contemporary landscape photography. Hear
from practicing photographers to inspire and inform your own work and learn
the skills and techniques needed to capture all your ideas. In
partnership with the Zion Centre in Hulme the course will be split between
artist talks here at the Whitworth and practical sessions over at the Zion
Centre. Culminating with an exhibition of your work created on the course
within the Zion Centre's gallery at the end of April.

http://zionarts.com/

*£80 for students

To book onto any Adult Programme events please call our Visitor Services
Team on 0161 275 7540.

For any queries or for further details please email Ed Watts, Adult
Programme Coordinator, ed.watts@manchester.ac.uk

Here's the link as well,

http://whitworthadultprogramme.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/contemporary-landsca
pe-photography-8-week-course-100/

Here We Go Again.

2010-11-16T22:15:00.010Z

I don't mind the Royal family they're a hoot, and if nothing else they make me grateful that my own family function so well. I know all the pomp and ceremony that the world laps up is about the only thing that GB plc is any good at these days, fuck we even have to share boats with the French. Without the Queen & CO we would be about as well known on the world stage as say Luxemburge. See I can't even be bothered learning how to spell that place.

What I hate is all the shit news coverage that we are going to have to swallow over the coming months. "I thought Kate did so well at the press conference" cooed some stupid 'preppy' looking old tart of a Royal corespondent. Did well? all the girl had to do was stand up and smile. Although that's a good start, the previous occupier of the glass slippers she's about to fill was today described by Martin Bashir as "No great thinker" which made me laugh.

So a toast to the new Royal couple, and all the tea-towels, mugs, plates, T-shirts, secret lovers, nervous breakdowns, divorces, addictions, abdications, thieving butlers, billionaire Arab playboys, toe sucking army officers, racist remarks, drink problems, madness, etc etc. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN AND ALL WHO SAIL IN HER.

John Darwell @ ACC.

2010-11-15T23:14:00.005Z

Image copyright John Darwell

This months speaker at THE ALTERNATIVE CAMERA CLUB is one of the UK's leading documentary photographers, JOHN DARWELL. John has made work from Chernobyl to Nevada although in more recent years England's North-West and particularly Cumbria has been central to John's oeuvre (love that word).

OK so that's JOHN DARWELL @ THE ALTERNATIVE CAMERA CLUB, THE WHITWORTH GALLERY, MANCHESTER. SATURDAY 20th NOVEMBER @ 10:30 £3 all in. No need to book but you can here- ed.watts@manchester.ac.uk

Kay May

2010-11-11T11:11:00.000Z

Image copyright Kay May.

Kay May is a photographer who has a very personal connection with war. Her son is a serving soldier in Afghanistan. Her series and book 'The Hawthorn Tree' is a document of a mothers war. The series can be seen HERE and the book can be seen HERE. May's work is also included in a group show 'Bringing The War Home' at Impressions Gallery Bradford

2010-11-10T22:19:00.002Z

Image copyright Mark Page

2010-11-09T23:59:00.005Z

An old chesnut.

By no means a new topic, just a new set of pictures raising again questions of exploitation. This time it's Donald Weber's series 'Interrogations'. You're bound to have seen the interview with Weber over on Colin Pantall's blog. I like a lot of Weber's work but in my view this series is lazy, predictable and to use a word from my youth 'tight'. OK Weber has travelled a great distance and made contacts and been patient waiting for the Russian coppers to start acting like the pricks they no doubt are. I reckon it would take me or anybody else about ten seconds to realise the outcome of putting these people in a room with these coppers in this country and that the chances are that they ain't going to get a good meal and a neck rub. Weber's pictures do nothing to show me anything I wasn't expecting. We seem to have moved away from starving Africans and replaced them with prisoners and inmates as the new morally acceptable easy target documentary subject . What is it with VII agency? Join in the debate HERE. I'm off to photograph Iain Duncan-Smith making dole scroungers cry.

Michael Danner

2010-11-09T23:11:00.003Z

Image copyright Michael Danner.

I'm not really sure what this series 'Birds of Passage' is all about, but I do kinda like it's bizarreness. Birds painted on trees and then photographed, a collaboration with illustrator Vanessa Karre. Plenty of other stuff to look at as well over on his SITE.

2010-11-09T00:42:00.002Z

Image copyright Mark Page

Ralph Gibson.

2010-11-07T21:35:00.004Z

Image copyright Ralph Gibson.

A few words about sequencing and bookmaking from someone who knows how to do it. Take a look at his 1970 series "The Somnambulist" (in the archive 1 section)

"In 1959 I was a young photographer's mate aboard the USS Tanner. With time to spare I explored the ship's library. One slim volume attracted my attention. It was "Four Quartets" by T.S. Eliot. These poems created a strong and unfamiliar impression on me. The cadence of the words implied an imagery that come from their very position on the page. It was only ten years later that I began to understand the real meaning of sequencing images on a page.The sequencing of photographs in "The Somnambulist" was a direct result and pursuit of the feelings I experienced many years before in the ship's library Eliot's word-shapes on the page spoke in many ways, precise but never too literal. I was drawn to this kind of experience and understand this now to be an aspect of how the process was to reveal itself in my own work. Surely there are parallel examples of this phenomenon.

An exhibition of my prints in a gallery or museum reveals how I relate to the medium of photography. Immediately one can see my attitude towards film, light, lenses and camera handling. A book, however is another story. In a book we see how I think about my photographs and the context in which they are intended to be seen.This is an important distinction. Context, as Marcel Duchamp made abundantly clear, is everything. A beautiful nude torso entitled "The breasts of Venus" will be perceived in a totally different way than the same photograph entitled "Still no cure for breast cancer". In a book I can be fully responsible for the context of the work.
The ancient Greeks invented the concept of the proscenium in the theatre. Behind the prosce- nium anything was possible, reality ended in front of the arch over the stage. The title of a book of photographs functions much in the same manner. The title informs the viewer of the context by which the images are to be seen.

I can start a book project with as few as 10 or 15 images.The first few spreads, usually around 4 or 5, set the tone of the sequence to follow. The sequence is then altered by the addition of newer images as they arrive.The title sets the tone and the point of departure for the work to follow. This can be sustained for years, some projects ongoing for a lifetime. I have been photographing in France and Italy for over 30 years.The same is true of the nude. One never comes to the end of such studies.

Whereas the viewer at an exhibition of photographs is free to wander about the gallery at will, the viewer of a book holds the book at a certain specific distance from the eyes, usually seated in a favorite well lit chair. This viewing distance is almost always the same from person to person.With this in mind I can be assured that certain spatial relationships between the images will be consistent and will be seen by all the viewers in a similar manner. I can build on this principle. Next comes the sequencing of the spreads, often designed to create a non-specific narrative or an elliptical linearity The sum of the images exceeds the total of the parts. Books can be about anything but when successful a book is an unbroken string of right decisions."

Ralph Gibson

Phantasmagoria!

2010-11-04T22:51:00.003Z

Phantasmagoria. No not the 1985 Album that finally killed off for good any illusions that
THE DAMNED where a proper Punk band, but an evening (and afternoon for scared-ey cats) of Victorian inspired weird spooky marvelous-ness that our nineteenth century ancestors where so good at, and not a pickled two headed baby in a jar in sight. It's all to be held in what has to be the ultimate setting for this kind of thing, THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY. So Ladies & Gentlemen, ROLL UP! ROLL UP! Details below.

"Monday 8th November Mervyn Heard, the world's finest Phantasmagoria Magic Lantern Projectionist, will be performing a show at John Rylands Library, Manchester.

4.30 - 5pm a family friendly show

7.30 - 9pm an evening event where things get a bit more sinister and spooky!
...

ALL WELCOME, the event is FREE! call 0161 06 0555 to reserve yourself a free seat or email jrul.events@manchester.ac.uk

John Rylands Library, 150 Deansgate, Manchester M3 3EH see
http://www.heard.supanet.com/html/performances.html
for more info about the show"

Rachel Phillips

2010-11-03T23:48:00.004Z

Image copyright Rachel Phillips

I like the delicate Japanese 'Willow' feel to This work by RACHEL PHILLIPS. Ssssshhhhh lets be quiet and calm tonight. Zen.

Ambience of Play @ THE GREENROOM.

2010-11-02T23:44:00.004Z

Image copyright Katie Louise Dixon

Ambience of Play

Liz West, Katie Louise Dixon & David Morris

28 October - 18 December 2010, greenroom, Manchester

"From the award winning to the untrained, Blank Media Collective are pioneering the best creative talents from across the Pennines. Ambience of Play showcases three contemporary practitioners who are helping to keep the art scene in the North-West fresh and exciting. What makes these artists innovative is their playful approach to art practice as they set their own challenges to create their work.

The year 2010 continues to be a creative hotbed for original talent and this is definitely the case in reference to Liz West, Katie Louise Dixon and David Morris. From supermarkets to abandoned theme parks, these artists are constantly investigating social and urban practices, whilst retaining elements of fun and intrigue. Ambience of Play is an exhibition highlighting the mundanity that we see and often ignore."CONTINUED HERE.

Kevin Van Aelst.

2010-11-02T23:27:00.004Z

Image copyright Kevin Van Aeslt

If Andy Goldsworthy was suddenly taken out of the beautiful natural landscape of rock and mosses and delicate icicles and lovely leaves, and was transported into the world that many of us have to live in, a world of plastic crap and cars, ketchup and old cups of coffee could he still make interesting sculptural work out of found objects ? Kevin Van Aelst can.

Rock n Roll, and Folk.

2010-11-01T23:11:00.003Z

This coming Saturday I've got some photo's being shown down at THE WHITWORTH as part of a night of music and projected photography. It's to tie in with the current exhibition
‘Land Between Us: power, place and dislocation’. Local Manchester bands playing include Samson & Delilah - http://www.thesamsonanddelilahshow.co.uk/ and We Are Willow – Part 2 - http://www.myspace.com/wawillow to name but two. It's free starts at 6:30 and is first come first serve. Details HERE. This is the closest I will probably ever get to being a 'muso' so I'm looking forward to it.

2010-11-01T23:03:00.003Z

Are 'getting it on' to bring us this years MANCHESTER ARTISTS BOOK FAIR this coming Saturday. Details of Cafe Royal Books HERE.

THE BUY ART FAIR.

2010-10-31T23:43:00.006Z

I bought some art today. I went to THE BUY ART FAIR and bought the above plate, a couple of little collectors books and a T.Shirt by Tracey Emin. I like Tracey Emin she uses the word 'cunt' even more than me......

Anyway running alongside THE BUY ART FAIR which mainly consists of an awful lot of shit ( think bad graffiti and air brushed naked ladies,think 1980's heavy metal album covers or pictures of confused looking cows painted in a naive stylie on hills that look like boobies) is THE MANCHESTER CONTEMPORARY which is not shit, and is getting bigger and more interesting each year and is where I got my bits and bobs from. I know perhaps I should have bought stuff by an 'emerging Artist' rather than by Tracey, but to be honest Tracey's stuff, although maybe not as limited was cheaper!

2010-10-31T23:38:00.000Z

Image copyright Mark Page

Malcolm Craig Gilbert and the latest SOURCE.

2010-10-31T22:52:00.005Z

Image copyright Malcolm Craig Gilbert.

For me the juries still out on Malcolm Craig Gilbert's series
'Post Traumatic Exorcism' Still there's plenty of other great stuff to look at and for those cleverer types amongst you, things to read in the latest edition of SOURCE. It's got a bit of a sinister feel this time, a slight Halloween accent perhaps ?

Bah humbug 2 months early......

2010-10-31T22:36:00.005Z

Image copyright Mark Page

What is it with Halloween ? load of of bollocks that's what it is. Another load of shit swallowed by a nation (us) losing it's identity and filling the void with Americana. Come round to my house trick or treating and you'll get 'short bloody shift' ya little bastards...

Gregory Isaacs 1951-2010.

2010-10-25T23:57:00.001+01:00

Gordon Clark & Leon Botha.

2010-10-25T23:14:00.008+01:00

Images copyright Gordon Clark

Made me question my motives for posting these photo's by South African photographer Gordon Clark. I was drawn to them and I know why. Shock value and base instincts that no matter how sophisticated I try to be, keep rising back to the surface. What saved me from being a cheap voyeur and what lifts this work way above Shock Art and into the realms of Bloody Good Art, is the collaboration of the subject in the pictures by fellow artist Leon Botha. Clark & Botha's joint project 'LEON'

Snap.

2010-10-25T22:27:00.008+01:00

Image copyright Mark Page.

Me and Ian Brown's video director on last years track 'Stellify' had the same location idea. It's the bit when he starts singing, and it's my route to work every morning. Can anyone name said location ?

Stephen Tourlentes.

2010-10-22T17:09:00.005+01:00

Image copyright Stephen Tourlentes

From Stephen's statement about his project 'OF LENGTH AND MEASURES: Prison and the American landscape'

"Over the last several years I have been photographing the institution of incarceration in American. The presence and location of these institutions of exile paradoxically reflect back upon the society that builds them. Prisons are highly complex systems designed to contain, and punish the burgeoning population presently incarcerated in the United States. Since 1980 the number of prisons in the U.S. has quadrupled. A 2008 report from the Pew Center on the States reports census totals for the American prison system at over 2.3 million incarcerated in state and federal systems. The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners. More than one in 100 adults in the US is in prison or jail" CONTINUED

found via Prison photography including an interview by Pete HERE. So it got me thinking I've not really seen much British prison photography. I know about Donovan Wylie's MAZE work, and I've seen portrait work done in association with prisoners/education departments, but for instance I've never seen landscape work done about them. We've 140 of them in Britain, in all kinds of environments so you think someone would have had a stab. Sorry that's a bad choice of words......

And not a plastic tit in sight........

2010-10-21T22:52:00.011+01:00

From 1938.

BILLY & ROONEY, PENDLETON, 2010.

2010-10-21T22:29:00.004+01:00

Image copyright Mark Page

I bet THIS 'Rooney' doesn't need a couple of hundred grand a week to guarantee his loyalty.

2010-10-21T16:13:00.002+01:00

Martin Usborne

2010-10-21T15:55:00.005+01:00

Image copyright Martin Usborne

Broke my bloody heart Martin Usborne's series 'MUTE: The Silence of dogs in cars' But then I saw his other series 'LIFE AS A DOG IN THE RECESSION' and 'DEAD FOX' and they cheered me right up again!

Found via foto8

BROKEN MANUAL..

2010-10-20T21:40:00.008+01:00

Image copyright Alec Soth

News of Alec Soth's latest book BROKEN MANUAL has been floating around the blogs for a while now. A large chunk, 53 images, have recently been uploaded to Soth's new website. So for those of us who haven't got a spare $800 to buy this Special limited edition version, and I really wish I had, you can get get a good idea of what will be in the $75 version due out at a later date.
This work marks a pretty significant change in style. Alongside Soth's usual large format colour work we also find B/W, still lives and even what appear to be some kind of scan or perhaps Internet grabs. It all makes for a really intriguing set of images which gives a strange unsettling feel to the sequence. Of course the big question now is what are all the legions of Soth imitators going to do?

Career Advice.

2010-10-19T23:56:00.008+01:00

Take off that Red shirt, hang it on a hook in the changing room and fuck off............

BEARD-EEE BUGGERS.

2010-10-19T23:25:00.007+01:00

Apparently Beards are all the RAGE at the moment with Manchester Northern Quarter/Chorlton Types (mainly with the men although not exclusively) putting this pu-biccy form of attention seeking to good use, some of the most ridiculous Dedicated followers of facial hair, have parked up their 'FIXIES' donned some tweed and posed for Manchester photographer Gill Moore so as to produce a calender all in the name of charity. The photographs can be seen at COMMON BAR with a launch of the calender this Thursday. Go see Gill's Pictures even if this much face fuzz makes you end up with a little bit of sick in your mouth....... More details below.

The launch of the "Beards of Manchester" calendar will be at Common Bar this Thursday 21st October from 6pm.

It's a hairy initiative to find the best beards in Manchester and all in the name of charity. The brainchild of Sam (b & n magazine) and Chris (Oh Digital), I was delighted to be asked to work on this project and played my part by taking all the photographs featured in the calendar in and around Manchester over the last few weeks. The sun came out once and not even torrential rain stopped us.
All images featured in the calendar will be exhibited in Common Bar, Northern Quarter, Manchester aswell as a huge framed compilation of all the hairy entries which didn't make the cut.

The charity calendar will be on sale on the night and at venues around the city after that.

There may be beer. Could well be cupcakes.
Would love it if you can join me. Thanks for reading and hope to see you Thursday.

Gill x

Colleen Plumb.

2010-10-18T23:57:00.003+01:00

Animals both alive and dead and pretend feature heavily in the work of Colleen Plumb.

P.S. Hello to everyone who was at THE ALTERNATVE CAMERA CLUB this past Saturday. It was great to meet more of you.....

2010-10-14T22:41:00.005+01:00

"Are current trends of non-payment and free labour perpetuating a new ideal where artists are becoming distinctly bourgeois? Guyan Porter questions purportedly leftist and radical practice that promotes art as being apart from common economics and, consequently, from payment."

Via AXIS HERE.